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So after doing Fright Nights a few times now, I'll give my review. Dead Beat I did this for my first time yesterday. After seeing lots of mixed reviews I hadn't bothered with it before but kept it spoiler free for myself. But I was really pleasantly surprised with this, was my favorite maze last night by far. Its long, themeing is great, great smells, loved the soundtrack, lots of great scares (actors had some really good hiding places.) The ending with the actor flying above your head was my favorite part by far. That got me good, never seen something like that in a maze before. Survival Games Did this on the opening night and last night. On the opening night it was great, pretty much the same as last year. It was having a lot of issues that night though and saw the area got evaced at least 3 times due to the fire alarm going off. Yesterday however, it wasn't so great. Absolutely no smoke in the main area which made a huge difference. Potentially due to the fire alarm issues? But they really need to sort that out. What made this maze great was that you couldn't really see where you where going in the main part and it was confusing. With no smoke, you can see everywhere you're going. Actors seemed very hands-off yesterday too. Stiches Pretty much the same as last year. I don't know what it is but I feel like I've never had a particularly good run through in this maze. I want to enjoy it but its not for me and has never been one of my favorites unfortunately. Trailers Another one where I've never been the biggest fan off. This year does seem consistent though, good amount of actors and its a decent length. Just always felt this has lacked scares though. Bit cheeky calling them new scenes this year as not a lot has really changed. Crows Decent scarezone, pretty much an outdoor maze. Not as strong as last year though unfortunately. Lots of security/staff visible throughout the walk really kills the atmosphere too. On the first couple times I went they were constantly telling us to keep moving which was annoying, less of that yesterday but still does kill the atmosphere having them visible everywhere. Hopefully they can improve on this next year or have a change up as Crows are getting pretty stale now. Lucifers Lair and Creature Campus Can't really comment on either of these as I haven't really spent any time in either of them. Luciers Lair is decent and creates a nice atmosphere at the center of the park. I think its pretty cheeky calling Creature Campus a scarezone, its a dance show. I don't go to scare events to watch people dance to be honest, so not a bit of me. Not for me and I'd rather the budget was used for a different scare attraction instead, but I do understand the reasons for keep bringing it back as it does seem to be popular. Everything else Fright Nights will never be as good as it was in its old days, but overall its another strong year for Fright Nights. Yesterday in particular was great, got 3 mazes done in less than an hour. Operations across the park were great and didn't see a single breakdown or ride shutdown all day. Park wide audio I'm really not a fan of this year. Disappointing they haven't bothered with individual ride audio again too. Was always one of my favorite things about Fright Nights. Lighting looks great though this year, great to see so much permanent lighting. Best the park has ever looked at night. Theres still improvements that could be made though. Detonator for example had programmed lighting not long ago which seems to have disappeared. Would like to have seen them do more with Hyperia too. Imagine if the lights flashed as it went down the lift hill? Or flashed a different color even? There used to be a lot more smoke machines around the park as well which was cool, so would be nice to be see them return, especially with the new lighting. Vortex is looking great with a smoke machine, but other rides would benefit from this too. Samurai was always a good one. Stealths hasn't worked the last few times I've been which is a shame. Oh and lastly, I'll keep saying this every year. But 10pm closes are missed as there isn't enough time in the dark. Even if it means doing 11-10 or 12-11. Or as Josh has said before, even keeping the mazes and coasters open till 10 would be good.

The park do not need a planning application to remove it. However, if the park intend to use the space for a flat ride, it is better to leave it until they submit the planning application. This is because it makes it easier/quicker for the application to go through ("We have a ride here, we're replacing it with something of a similar size and scale"). If they remove the ride, turn it into a blank space, then put in an application, it's slightly more effort to put through (not to mention a general faff too). The park did say they'd look at removing it this closed season, but beyond that statement there's no indication either way whether that will happen. As you say though, there's no planning application in place as of yet, so it's unlikely we'll see a new ride in its space in 2025.

Just to add to this, back in the early to mid 2000's we were reaching numbers between 18000-20000. However this did cause issues. I particularly remember some of the days the queue to get into the car park went back towards the Sainsburys by Staines bridge. For comparison, EPCOT at Disneyworld gets around 80000-90000 for their New Years eve celebrations

Queue closed at 9.05 last night. Seems the information about early queue closure has now been removed from the app now too, so think its safe to say it'll close at 9 every night for Fright Nights. Hopefully that'll be the end of it and we won't see the return of the early queue closures next season